India’s Supreme Court on Tuesday effectively lifted a ban on tourism in the country’s tiger parks, just in time for the opening of the tourism season.

The court relaxed a temporary order that prevented tourists from accessing “core” zones of tiger reserves, or areas where concentration of tigers is highest. Now, the court is saying that tourists are allowed in up to 20% of these areas.

The overwhelming majority of tiger reserves only allowed tourists to access an even smaller portion of core areas to begin with. These include some of India’s most popular tiger parks, like Jim Corbett National Park and Ranthambore National Park. For them, the court’s decision means it’s back to business as usual, at least for now.

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The order comes as a relief to the country’s 41 state-run reserves, many of which recorded a sharp drop in ticket sales when they opened their doors for tourists earlier this month.

Officials in Ranthambore welcomed the court’s decision. The park, home to 31 tigers, recorded a drastic slump in bookings and tickets sales since it reopened after the monsoon season a fortnight ago. Balendu Singh, a senior official at the reserve, described the order as “commendable” and expressed hope tourism would pick up again soon.

The only major parks that allow tourists in more than a fifth of their core areas are Kanha National Park and Bandhavgarh, both of which are in the state of Madhya Pradesh. They will have to restrict tourist access to their core areas, but only marginally, meaning tourism is unlikely to be affected. “20% is enough for good business,” says Jasbir Singh Chauhan, a senior official at Kanha National Park.

While tiger parks welcomed the court’s recent order, activists that pushed for the ban were far from pleased. Ajay Dubey, a Bhopal-based environmental activist who moved the ban in court, told India Real Time he was “disappointed” with Tuesday’s order. “This defeats our entire purpose of responsible tourism,” he said, adding that his lawyers would counter the court’s decision in the next hearing, which is scheduled for Nov. 30. That’s when the court is expected to deliver a final judgment on the case.

Supporters of the ban have previously argued that restricting tourism is central to efforts to save India’s tigers, the numbers of which have dwindled to about 1,700 from an estimated population of 100,000 a century ago.

Critics of the ban, including some conservationists, argue that a blanket ban on tourism would do more harm than good. Tourists, they say, help keep park activities in check, making it harder for poachers to go unnoticed.

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